Storage Shed

We ran out of space in the yard and as any keen observer will see from the pictures, I started when it was warm and sunny and finished when it was snowing ;)

The Shed is built on a 12’x16’ platform on piers. My yard is not even close to level and this seemed more reasonable than bringing in a dozer for a shed. We stick built the whole thing from about the 9th rendition of our Google sketchup design.

The main door on the front looks like 2 doors but it’s actually a trap/ramp door hinged at the bottom. Because the shed sits so high off the ground, I needed a ramp to be able to put equipment in. I didn’t want something else to have to weed whack around so I built the ramp into the door so it’s all concealed. It has a 5/12 pitch, which doesn’t leave much room for “attic storage” but I added plywood to the collar ties (ceiling joists) to give me a place to put the roof racks for the car, stove pipe and a boatload of lumber ;)

There are only temporary stairs leading into the small door (4×8x16 blocks stacked up to make temp stairs) but that will have to do until the ground thaws. Also, I got a fantastic deal on some marine paint that I’ll put on the floor in the spring.

I probably could have saved more money on this project, but if you read below, it was a PITA because of all the $$ saving shortcuts I tried.

1) 3/4 tongue and groove plywood for the floor is awesome, but 3/4 tongue and groove OSB swells if it gets even a little wet and the junk never dries out. I should not have tried to save a few $$2) Aluminum fascia almost made me tear the rest of my hair out. I should not have tried to save a few $$ and just bought the vinyl board I wanted.3) I swear I’ve learned this before, but shingling without a pneumatic gun is just plain stupid. I should not have tried to save a few $$ and just bought the damn gun.

Thanks to my Father and my buddy Tom for the help. Without that help I’d probably still be outside.

Hey “Joe,” it looks like you and I have the same type of backyard just finished my shed as well and I decided to use cinderblocks dry laid next to each other with very small qp gravel under it so it could drain. I hope you plan on closing in the sides as you will have a ton of unwelcome guests moving in under there in no time. Nice work on the shed itself and looks like you got it done just in time for the first snow to fly. Pat

Belg1960 – I was debating on closing in the sides, but I wonder if that will just make it a closed, wind/weather protected environment. If it’s open, maybe it won’t be as much out of the weather as the critters want and I can get under there and scare off all the wolverines

dbhost – I’m not sure how to share sketchup files (or any files for that matter) on here which is the only reason I didn’t post them. If you know how, let me know and I’ll make it available.

Nice shed! I have a little 18ga finishing nailer that’s saved my bacon a couple times. You can’t swing a hammer as clean as the nailer does it’s job. One mishit and it’s dimples all around the nail head. Clean and fast.

Hi Joe,You can share your creations from Sketchup from the File menu – select ‘3D Warehouse’ and then ‘Share Model’

The first time you do this, you need to Register, otherwise Login. You will then be prompted with what to do.

Besides uploading your own drawings, you can use ‘Get Models’ instead of ‘Share Models’ to access a whole raft of other people’s creations (I can’t remember whether you need to Register/Login or not for this).

Others can find your drawing by Searching for the title you give it, or by your registered name, so they need to be given this info’.

As an example, if you search for ‘donjohnson24’, you will find a ‘Garden Bench’ of mine – but if you search for ‘Garden Bench’ you will find hundreds!

(I didn’t know much about Sketchup when I did that drawing – so its pretty crude !!!)

Don – When dbhost said he wanted the files shared, I thought about emailing them to members here or sharing them on lumberjocks. I didn’t think about sharing them through the google sketchup 3D warehouse. I assumed lumberjocks had a place to share files between members.

For anyone interested in the google sketchup model for this shed, you can do a search in google’s 3d warehouse for “garden shed on piers” and my model is the only one that comes up. Although I modeled it to estimate materials needed and cost, certain things changed since the model was developed. The only changes I can think of that I made “on the flly” were the number of piers and the side the doors were on. Hopefully someone here finds it useful. If anyone is interested in actual materials used, feel free to ask. As for the model, I believe I built all lumber dimensionally correct.